By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)- Mounir H. Gwarzo, on Monday emerged acting director general of Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) following the exit of Arunma Oteh after her mandatory five (5) year tenure.
Oteh made this announcement at a formal handover ceremony in the commission’s headquarters in Abuja Nigeria, according to a statement by SEC and made available to InvestAdvocate.
The statement said Oteh handing over to Gwarzo, described her five (5) year tenure at the commission as absolutely outstanding attributing it to the co-operation she received from every member of staff.
“When I joined SEC in January 2010, I was absolutely certain about why the SEC was important and what it’s role and what the agenda was. I was able to articulate it in one phrase “building a world class market,” she said.
Oteh affirmed that to have a vision and everyone being able to connect and align around it for her; be it capital market operators, shareholders and other stakeholders has been a rewarding experience. ‘’But I don’t think it would have been possible without each and every one of you accepting the challenge to try something in a different way or to do something in a way that you are not quite sure of,” she added.
The out gone DG further affirmed that what the commission has been able to achieve in summary is to lay a foundation for the nation to see a capital market that will help tackle its infrastructure challenges; that will help people who are setting up businesses, who own businesses raise millions of naira in capital.
“Our aim is to build a meritocracy so that it is the viable businesses that get funded, not necessarily the ones that have connections so that we can also tackle some of what we are seeing in our world today, whether it is security challenges we face or the security challenges that everybody faces. My view is that one of the things that will address it is if people can feel that they are included, that they have economic access; that they can create wealth, that the income inequalities that we see around us can be addressed. And I believe that the capital market is the answer and what we have done in the last five years is to lay a foundation; there is still a lot of work to be done” Oteh said.
SEC said Gwarzo was born 50 years ago in Kano and attended Bayero University, Kano and graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Economics in 1987. In 1991, he proceeded to the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom where he obtained a Post Graduate Degree in Development Finance. ‘’Gwarzo is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Stock Brokers; in 2005 he became a Fellow of the Institute,’’ SEC said.
The commission noted that the acting DG has played roles the in Nigerian Capital Market as an operator and as a regulator. ‘’This is evident from the caliber of institutions he has served in during his working career that spans a period of 25 years,’’ SEC said.
The Nigeria’s capital market apex regulator disclosed that Gwarzo has served in the Ministry of Trade, Kano State; Nigerian Stock Exchange, Century Merchant Bank Limited, Empire Securities Limited, Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria and MTL Global Investment Limited.
Also, he has participated in several courses both home and abroad, some of which are: The Securities Market Regulation which is the leading training program in securities regulation in the world by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission; Development of Bonds Markets in Johannesburg, South Africa; Asset Backed Securities and Mortgage Securitization in Singapore; Operational and Credit Risk Management in Dubai; and Advanced Management Programs (AMPS) at INSEAD (The Premier Management Institute in Europe), Paris as well as at the SAID Business School, Templeton College, University of Oxford, UK.
He is happily married and widely traveled.
